The foundation of my career plan lies within a desire to build upon my solid background in nutritional epidemiology and cancer prevention with training and research experience in genetic epidemiology. My overall career goal is to establish a strong research program in diet and gene interactions in the prevention and progression of cancer, specifically prostate cancer and breast cancer. More immediately my goal is to develop a research agenda to assess the association between dietary fat and prostate cancer risk. This agenda will include a series of projects beginning with a case-control study to evaluate the association between dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid intake and prostate cancer risk and to determine whether polyunsaturated fatty acids function through the cyclooxygenase pathway to alter prostate cancer risk. This research project, in addition to being scientifically stimulating also provides me with an opportunity to work closely with geneticists, genetic epidemiologists, and oncologists to develop my knowledge and practical skills in genetic epidemiology. The Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) provides an ideal environment for pursuing this research agenda. OHSU together with the Oregon Cancer Institute have a clear interest in supporting cancer prevention and control research. My particular area of interest ties in well with an established program in Molecular Biology and Genetics as well as with the research interests of other established investigators at OHSU. The Public Health Preventive Medicine program provides senior collaborators in epidemiology and biostatistics as well as staff support. OHSU is physically located adjacent to the Portland VA Medical Center, providing OHSU researchers the unique opportunity to collaborate with VA researchers, and access to a large and well-described population of individuals.